Sunday, 27 May 2012

Alex's Diary - Week 1


Day 1 –  Wednesday - 2/5/2012 - Home to Parkes

I’m feeling very very excited as I get prepared to go away, but I know I’ll miss my neighbours. I might even get homesick and I’ll definitely miss my friends and relatives. We’ve been doing a lot of preparing with packing, cleaning, organizing and selecting what to take. This includes trying on outfits, selecting what to take, lots of shopping, packing, unpacking and repacking to make everything fit, vacumming, late nights and a lot of effort from all of us. Good work team! I’m most looking forward to having Dad off work and Mum off cleaning! The places I’m most looking forward to are Coober Pedy, Broken Hill, Ayres Rock, Broome, and Alice Springs! The only thing I’m worried about is our water supply. When we head off I am soooooooooo excied!!!!!!!! I can’t believe it. We drive on and come to an immediate halt at the bike shop to check if Mum’s bike is good to take away with us. After that we filled up at Janelle’s house with her hose, so we had lots of water for the trip. Then we were off. After an hour and a half of driving we arrive at Glenbrook to say good bye for the last time for four months! We had a good walk around and when we get back Grandma gives us each a book to do on the trip. Hen we go to Bathurst where we see old street lamps and a bunch of ancient buildings as we drive through town. Then we head on. We come to Manildra where we drove under a flour factory! Once we get to Parkes we played “Tip” with our cousins and then we played football and went to bed.

Day 2 – Thursday – 3/5/2012 – Parkes to Broken Hill
Longest trip.
We woke up and I played throw and catch and then AFL with Max. It was forty two all. Then we got dressed and cleaned our teeth. We mucked around for a while and I chase Annalise around for a ball, sort of like a war! Then we said goodbye and headed off to Broken Hill, our first real spot! We say my cousins pub because we drove past it. It’s pretty big. Then we saw some cotton plants growing along the side of the road. We even picked some to feel it. It’s very prickely but the actual cotton is soft but the very middle is quite hard. We saw the   factory which the cotton is cleaned and processed. Once we passed the factory and drove on some more, we arrived at Nyngan and we played rock soccer. I also made up a poem.
“Lach got a rock in his croc and wasn’t wearing a sock, knock knock” said Jock!
We drove on to Cobar where we look at Copper mines. They are big. We also saw a two headed lizard! We had lunch at a park and played on the equipment. We went to Willcannia and there was absolutely nothing at all!!!!! Then we drove past a beautiful sunset. Then we arrived.

Day 3 – Friday – 4/5/2012 – Broken Hill
We woke up very late on a misty day as we all had had a sleep in from our very late nights on day 1 and day 2. We had breaky of cheerios and me and Lachie rode our bikes around which was where I discovered two things. The first thing was that there was actually a road on the other side as opposed to gravel and dust and secondly that there was a really tricky bit to handle which consisted of a bump, a very sandy curve with a ditch, a sand dune and another sandy curve. Dad took videos of me and Lachie riding our bikes. Lachie stacked once but I didn’t stack at all. After that we played on the equipment at the park. There was a swing, three slides, two sea saws and two climbing frames. It was fun. Then we rode our bikes a bit and I fell of on the curve which I soon after mastered. I did a lot more riding and then had two mandarins and a banana. We then went and played at the park which was where I got kicked in the cheek going down a slide. We then went for a bike ride down to the information centre and back as a famil. It was fun except for Mum and Dad both getting wheels punctured and us two kids getting our front wheels punctured. When we got back we had a lunch of sesame seed rolls and berlina with sauce. We then went and shopped around to find some things we had forgotten and I saw he mines that make the hill so broken, and why the name was true. We came back and had stir fry in the camp kitchen and went to bed.

Day 4 – Saturday - 5/5/2012 – Broken Hill Day 2
I woke up and we all had a cuddle in Mum and Dad’s bed, the only proper bed in the camper trailer. Once we got up I went and helped Dad with the wiping up. Mum made the lunches while Dad got us breaky. We cleaned our teeth. We jumped in the car and got to open some gates on a very bumpy old dirt track to the mine tours where we got tickets for the mine tour. We did the underground and surface tour with a tour guide called Peter. The surface was too much abut information for me but the underground was a bit more like a tour. They even showed us how the machinery works and how much light they worked by. I hit my head on the roof six times so it was shallow in most bits. I enjoyed it and it was relieving to come out and get fresh air. After a chat with a man we drove down the Silverton and saw the horizon curving! IT was an awesome sight! On the way back there was a camel weeing in the middle of the road! We went to a lookout on Broken Hills’ active mine. There was a massive chair that was about 7 feet high! We all sat on it and a man that we had a chat with took a photo of us all and then I took a photo of the other 3 in the chair. We drove to the shops and did some shopping and went back to camp.

Day 5 – Sunday -  6/5/2012 – Broken Hill to Wilpena Pound
We woke up quite early so we could pack up and go. We got up and I stacked our mattresses and sleeping bags on the bed and got dressed. I then got to put the shoes in bags that would stack easier. Then I had the task of unzipping the windows. We had a breaky of mandarins and toast.  After breaky I tried to contain Lachie by going to the park and making some games. When Mum asked me to come back and help that had made huge progress! I helped by putting poles in the bag, going the Velcro, winding the legs up and putting the towbar on. 50kms later we took photos of us all in front of the “Welcome to South Australia” sign. We saw a couple of road trains and a massive train with over 70 carriages! Once we arrived I helped set up. I help set up the annex, get our beds out and help Mum with the clothes. We played tip with bar being a rock and went to bed.

Day 6 – Monday - 7/5/2012 – Wilpena Pound
We woke up and had a cuddle in bed for a bit and then ma and Lachie played car races and then cars on the annex floor. We had a breaky of cherios, bacon and toast and did a bunch of jobs with helping wash up. I then went down with Dad to find out if there was anyone who could fix our brake lights and reception told us to go to Chris. We discovered a playground. We played on the weird tow seat swing and then on the thingy mabobby that had a seat and a ledge for both people on it. We went to Hawker and Chris had a look at our brakes while we went and looked at a shop and had lunch. At that shop I learnt my family’s birth stones. Lachie is a peridot, Dad’s a pearly, Mum’s a ruby and I’m a opal.  When we got back to Chris he said he couldn’t what was wrong. We went back to camp, put on our shoes and went for a big, big six and a half kilometer walk in the Flinder’s Rangers. It was a tough walk and every one did really well. Lachie fell over. A bit later on, there was a big hole in the rock which was six metres deep! It was called Pine Caves. We came back, had dinner, read a book and went to bed.

Day 7 – Tuesday -  8/5/2012 – Wilpena Poud Day 2
I woke up and had a long cuddle in bed and accidently fell back asleep! I think I woke up over tired from six and a half kilometer bush walk from yesterday. Once I woke up for the second time I went out and had breaky. We played at the park, got ready to go on a walk and went. We went on a dirt track up the top of a hill to a lookout that looked out over the Flinder’s Rangers. We drove to Wilpena Pound Resort, parked our car and starte our 7.8 kilometre walk. It was fairly flat at first and then it got slightly steeper and more trees around. Roughly 3.3 kilometres later we stopped at a place called Hills Homestead. It had four signs which told you about its history, three outside tables and a small house. I bet you that they spent most of the time outside@! We had lunch and decided whether to go to the top lookout (600 metres) or just the bottom one (300 metres). In the end we decided to go to both. It was a very hard climb and was very slippery. We came back down and I experienced my 1st time ever at going to the toilet in a hole. Gross!! We went another 900 metres and stopped for some water and a mandarin and kept going. We met a couple with some kids and walked the rest of the way with them.  I sprinted the last 100 meters and up the set of stairs, 3 at a time. When they all arrived we got an ice cream. I had a rainbow paddle pop. It was refreshing! We drove back, got ready and went to see the sunset. It was beautiful. The hills were virtually red and green, like the Christmas colours! We came back, had dinner and went to bed. 

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